Third Time Isn't The Charm
by pixelsurgeon
Summary: It did take quite a few tries to get Booker to succeed. (Basically, how the Luteces lose most of their faith in humanity)
1. The Third Time

**A/N: **This is just going to be five chapters of all-dialogue mild Lutecest. Basically just them cringing over Booker's incompetence.

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"I thought DeWitt could swim."

"He _can_. If you hadn't moved the oar, he would be on his way."

"How was I to know he would slip?"

"Oh, use your common _sense_, Robert. The ladder is wet."

"He was a military man, you would think he would be able to climb a ladder."

"You hit him on the head. It's your fault."

"I only hit him because you refuse to row."

"How is my not rowing relevant to you killing a man?"

"If you'd taken the oar, he wouldn't have been hit."

"Maybe he should row."

"He _doesn't row_, Ros."

"Maybe he should next time."

"It's a constant. DeWitt doesn't row."

"Oh, _please_, brother. This is our third time. He might row the fourth time."

"Doubtful."

"I think this is an idiotic experiment."

"So you've said."

"If we keep at this, Booker DeWitts will continue to drop like flies."

"The first two times were his own stupidity."

"The first time was the girl beating him to death with a book, how was that his own stupidity? It was _her_ pent-up anger."

"His own stupidity for having a child in the first place."

"If he was so stupid to have a child, why are we wasting our time?"

"We've had this discussion, Ros."

"Have we?"

"_Yes_, we have."

"As I recall, it wasn't as much a discussion as a threat."

"You are so beautiful when you contradict me."

"That's narcissistic, brother. Also, how does the act of contradicting you make me more beautiful than usual?"

"It doesn't."

"Then why did you feel the need to comment this time out of all the other possible occasions?"

"You call _me_ narcissistic."

"That wasn't narcissism, that was logic."

"Wasn't. And besides, if I told you you were beautiful every time I thought it, I would be telling it to you endlessly for days."

"Must we sit here in the rain?"

"Do you want to row this time?"

"Hardly."

"We should get the next DeWitt."

"Should we?"

"Like they say, fourth time's the charm."

"No one says that, Robert."

"They should."

"No, it's idiotic and nowhere near as catchy as the real thing."

"How is it idiotic? It's hopeful."

"Sometimes hope is idiotic, brother. This whole DeWitt experiment is hopeful and idiotic. I mean, _honestly_. The second time, where he detached from the skyline too soon?"

"I will admit that was painful. I just feel guilty, Ros."

"You don't feel guilty about killing three DeWitts, and likely a hundred more?"

"I had no hand in the first two."

"Ah! So you admit you killed him this time!"

"I played a _minor_ part. He still should've been able to climb the ladder."

"But he _didn't_."

"Let's get the next one."

"Oh, don't sigh like that. Chin up, brother."

"Your hand's cold."

"Well, maybe if we weren't sitting in the rain..."

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**A/N: **Any and all feedback is extremely appreciated.


	2. The Twenty-Fifth Time

"If you're finished with your pretending not to cry, brother, can we leave?"

"He got so far, Ros."

"Yes, yes, I know."

"The only remaining Vigor, Ros. And it killed him."

"Still better than the ladder incident."

"Well, of course. That was his own incompetence. This was a magnetic field destroying him from the inside."

"Details, brother, details."

"Those aren't details, those are highly important points for this argument. If it's even an argument."

"They are details, in the grand scheme of this experiment. Twenty-five Booker Dewitts have died now. Does it really matter how any of them died?"

"I'm sure it mattered to them."

"Ah. Right you are. But really, that doesn't even matter. There's an infinite number of him. What one feels is rather inconsequential."

"Whatever you say, Ros."

"You shouldn't get so attached."

"Yes, well, you should wear your hair down, but I don't tell you that every day."

"I'm willing to offer you an ultimatum, brother."

"Like my ultimatum?"

"Hardly. I would never threaten to leave you, no matter how dire the circumstances or how much I believed in something."

"Then I suppose we're more different than we originally thought."

"We're still the same person, Robert. Don't be ridiculous. Maybe if I'd been the one to give the girl to Comstock, then we would be reversed."

"What was your ultimatum?"

"I will leave my hair down for the entire duration of the next ill-fated Booker DeWitt's life if we leave right now. And, if he survives, I'll never put it back up again."

"As long as you promise not to tamper with DeWitt's shield."

"Why on earth would I do a thing like that?"

"As a preventative measure, I won't kiss you again until he's survived the shield."

"Your time for this ultimatum is running short, brother. Shall we leave now?"

"Certainly. But only if you take your hair down now."

"Very well, if you want."

"You look beautiful."

"I thought you were waiting to kiss me until after the shield, brother."

"Plans change."

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**A/N: **Once again, all feedback is appreciated.


	3. The Seventy-Fifth Time

"He…he gave Elizabeth a gun. Why would he give her a gun?"

"In case you've forgotten, brother, I am a physicist. I have a limited knowledge of psychology. If you want me to make a diagnosis based on that, then I would just call it a severe lack of common sense."

"That is likely a sound diagnosis."

"You have no right to accuse DeWitt of a lack of common sense, though. You are the kind of person that would give a distraught girl a gun."

"Am not!"

"You are."

"That means you are, too."

"You are far more trusting than I. The only person I truly trust is you, dear brother. But, if you think that DeWitt will ever make it, that's your own mental failing—I might have to reconsider putting trust in you."

"It would be dangerous for you to stop trusting me."

"I have no reason to need to trust myself, brother, as I am always right."

"But doesn't believing that you're right require a certain degree of trust?"

"Don't contradict me, Robert."

"You contradicted me first."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"We're arguing like children, brother. Is this necessary?"

"No. We should get the next DeWitt."

"If you insist. Should we tell him not to give the girl a gun?"

"That would likely make him very paranoid. He wouldn't let her have the wrench either, therefore he would never meet Daisy Fitzroy, effectively changing the course of events for either better or worse."

"You sound like me."

"That conforms with reason, does it not?"

"I suppose it does."

"We should try it, though."

"Try what, brother?"

"Warning him not to give the girl the gun."

"That was a fairly poor use of alliteration."

"Why?"

"Wasn't very catchy. You don't think warning him will control the experiment too much?"

"It was your idea. And besides, it's worth a try. Seventy-five Bookers have died, what's another one?"

"Right you are, brother."

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**A/N: **All feedback is greatly appreciated.


	4. The One Hundredth Time

"Oh, do cheer up, Robert."

"I can't. I feel physically incapable of cheering up."

"Look on the bright side!"

"There's a bright side?"

"We're in an underwater city, brother, think of that. Think of the implications of such a tight and confined society. Also, that little girl we saw. Wasn't she fascinating?"

"She rather scared me, actually."

"You're hopeless. Or, really, DeWitt is hopeless."

"No, Ros, there was hope this time. He got so far…"

"Don't feel bad for yourself, feel bad for him. Bleeding to death is never a pleasant fate."

"How would you know?"

"Now, don't be insolent, brother. I have an imagination. How else do you think I got a city to fly?"

"I figured it had more to do with science."

"Yes, well. It's funny, though, I thought the girl had more medical knowledge than to let him just die."

"She was distracted by Songbird's death."

"Probably."

"He just came so far."

"Yes, brother, you've said that over a dozen times in the last hour. Shall we leave now?"

"If you insist."

"I'd rather we gave the whole thing up, myself. But I do love you. So I will insist on your behalf."

"I love you too, Ros."

"I'm sure I love you more."

"Is this about my threat again?"

"Maybe. You were rather exploiting the fact that I can't live without you."

"I know."

"You're colder than I give you credit for, brother. You do impress me from time to time."

"You impress me on a daily basis."

"You're also more easily impressed than I gave you credit for."

"I love you."

"Let's go."


	5. The One Hundred and Twenty-Second Time

**A/N: **Last chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read and review, y'all are awesome. This was really fun, I'm glad I could kind of entertain people with it.

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"Robert, _no_. Wait."

"To your credit, Ros, you _did _warn me. You told me this was idiotic. You were right."

"Don't leave me."

"I've lost all faith in everything. DeWitt will never be truly reunited with his daughter, and I will never wash away my guilt."

"But what does that have to do with you leaving? What did I do?"

"If I stay here, with you, I'll be too tempted to keep at it. To keep watching DeWitt fail. If he keeps dying, I might do something much worse than just go back to my reality."

"Please, brother, don't threaten me like that."

"That's why I have to leave."

"Couldn't I come with you?"

"I—"

"Robert,_ I love you_. More than you can imagine. If you make me attempt to live without you, I shall…do something drastic. Likely to myself."

"And now _you're _threatening _me_."

"Just…just one more try. One more time. Hundred and twenty-third time's the charm, is it not?"

"I don't know, Ros—"

"You didn't say you loved me. So now you owe it to me to try one more time."

"I love you, Ros. I love you so much. Now am I allowed to go?"

"No. You neglected to say it immediately after I did. You must stay and prove how much you love me."

"Sometimes you shock me with your persistence."

"Sometimes you shock me with just how easily you give up."

"You wanted to give up after the third Booker!"

"Inconsequential."

"It's highly consequential."

"You are staying, brother, and that is final."

"Kiss for luck?"

"You made me cry just now. I'm hardly going to reward you for that, am I?"

"I suppose not."

"Well. Chin up, brother. One hundred and twenty-third time's the charm. And if it's not, I shall suffer dearly."

"It will be. I'm quite sure."

"Take my hand, brother."

"Why?"

"You have such big hands. I find them comforting."

"Are you ready, Ros?"

"I'm ready."

"Then let's go."

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**A/N: **Once again, thanks for reading.


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